poison

1 noun

1 (C, U) a substance that can cause death or serious illness if you eat it, drink it etc: These fruits contain a deadly poison. | Joanna committed suicide by swallowing poison.

2 (C, U) something such as an emotion or idea that makes you behave badly or become very unhappy: Anger and hatred are poisons that destroy a person's emotional life.

3 what's your poison? spoken a humorous way of asking someone which alcoholic drink they would like

—see also: one man's meat is another man's poison meat (8) 2 verb (T)

1 to harm or kill someone by giving them poison: The whole family had been poisoned with strychnine.

2 to add poison to something: Germanicus feared that someone had poisoned his food. | poisoned arrows

3 to make land, rivers, air etc impure, especially by the use of harmful chemicals: We are poisoning our rivers with pesticides and toxic waste.

4 to have very harmful and unpleasant effects on someone's mind and emotions: Her father's tyranny had poisoned her childhood. | these violent videos that poison the minds of the young

5 poison sb's mind against sb to make someone dislike another person by saying bad and untrue things

6 especially BrE to infect a part of the body

7 poisoned chalice an important job that someone is given, which is likely to cause them a lot of trouble

— poisoner noun (C)